One Model Nation by Courtney Taylor-Taylor and Jim Rugg

2/5 stars

Book review by Ryan Agee.

Published 02 December 2011

Author Courtney Taylor-Taylor is a member of The Dandy Warhols, and so it’s appropriate that his debut graphic novel is the story of a band. This band are the titiular One Model Nation, but they’re nothing like Taylor-Taylor’s band. One Model Nation are, in fact, rather more like Kraftwerk (frankly, they’re incredibly similar) and their story is played out in seventies Germany, a period of some political turmoil. The band somehow gets associated with the Baader-Meinhof gang, and art and politics are therefore linked. But this fictional band don’t convincingly slot into the real situation of the time. It’s some fun to see them appear on Top of the Pops and meet David Bowie, but in general their story lacks enough detail to convince. This said, the art in the book, by Jim Rugg, is fantastic, influenced (it would seem) by Euro thrillers of the late sixties and seventies like Z or Nada. Rugg’s stylish drawings, and his layouts, propel the story past a number of odd plot developments, carrying the reader to the end of the book where some sort of statement on the nature of the relationship between art and politics is made. This is sometimes a confusing book, but in the end it passes the time. [Ryan Agee]